Artist · 11 prints
Francesco Guardi Prints
About Francesco Guardi
Francesco Guardi was an Italian painter, born in Venice in 1712, who died there in 1793. He and his brother Nicolò trained under their elder brother, Giovanni Antonio Guardi, and by 1731 the brothers ran a family workshop. Their sister Cecilia married the painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. From the mid-1750s Francesco turned to vedute, painted views of Venice, the work on which his fame rests.
Guardi's first views of Venice took their lead from Canaletto, but his canals and lagoons became looser and more atmospheric, with flickering light, shimmering water and small figures set down in quick touches of the brush. He painted regattas, festivals and state occasions; in 1782 he recorded the celebrations for the visit of Grand Duke Paul of Russia, and the Venetian Republic then commissioned him to record the visit of Pope Pius VI. English and other foreign visitors collected his work, and he was later elected to the Venetian Academy.
Francesco Guardi prints: reproductions of Venetian view paintings by the 18th-century Italian painter Francesco Guardi, made between about 1757 and 1780. The collection includes Piazza San Marco (1765), Santa Maria della Salute (1770), Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge (1780), The Grey Lagoon (1765) and San Giorgio Maggiore, with the Punta della Giudecca (1780).
This selection is made up almost entirely of views of Venice: canals such as the Giudecca, Cannaregio and Rio dei Mendicanti, churches seen across the water, gondolas on the lagoon and the entrance to the Arsenal. Two works show the city's public life: The Bucintoro Festival of Venice (1780) and an interior of the Ridotto, the state gambling house. Most use a pale palette of grey, silver-blue and soft ochre.
The calm water views suit living rooms, bedrooms, hallways and bathrooms, and the wide canal scenes work above a sofa, bed or sideboard. All prints are museum-quality reproductions, available unframed or framed with acrylic glazing, with free shipping and import duties covered.
